About Serafina

Here’s a video about Serafina, the main character of my books. I talk about who she is and what she does and where she lives—other than inside my head.

If you’d rather read it—here’s the transcript:

About Serafina

Today I’d like to tell you a little bit about Serafina, the main character of my mystery series.

She lives in Sicily in the nineteenth century. She’s a widow. She’s a midwife. She raises seven children. And she’s a sleuth with the mind of a wizard.

Her first mystery begins in 1866, and I chose to start her stories that year because Serafina was at a point of no return in her life.

In 1865 the year before DEATH OF A SERPENT begins, she loses her mother, her aunts and uncles, her sisters, her cousins, in a devastating epidemic of cholera that swept her town killing half the population in a day. Two months later, her husband dies suddenly. (While Serafina’s town is fictitious, it reflects Sicily in the nineteenth century and there were several waves of cholera in the 1860s.)

She says of her state of mind then, “I entered that flat, dead landscape we call grief.”

After her pain lifts somewhat, she has a choice—she can either sit back or fight. And in the end, she chooses to fight.

It’s her hallmark—she never gives up. She remains committed to supporting her children, committed to her quest for justice.

That doesn’t mean she’s perfect, not by a long chalk. She doesn’t want me to use the word ‘faults,’ says it’s too judgmental. But she does have her peccadillos and unique mannerisms. For instance,

she eats olives and cookies at the same time, stuffing her mouth with them

and her curls frizz the moment there’s a hint of rain.

Her toes are usually cold, even in a climate that’s hot enough to fry snakes on the streets.

As far as peccadillos go, many times her first response during the conversation around the table is to try to control, especially if she doesn’t like or understand the general drift of the tide, but that’s because she’s afraid of being left behind.

And she’s got a healthy jealous streak, although most of the time she doesn’t admit it. At one point she calls Inspector Colonna, “a no nothing lout.”

Life wasn’t easy for Serafina. In Sicily, the times were horrendous. It was a society barely functioning

So, in DEATH OF A SERPENT in addition to dealing with the mystery of who killed three women, Serafina deals with a lot of external conflict going on around her.

But beyond this external conflict, Serafina has a gnawing inner conflict. It’s her core conflict—she’s got that gender thingy going on. Is a woman more than a wife and mother? Does a woman deserve to enjoy the fullness of humanity the same as a man? In the end, this internal to-ing and fro-ing informs all of her decisions and revisions and accounts for much of the tumult in her head.

I could go on and on about core conflict. But I’ve bent your ear for long enough, so thanks for listening.

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The Writer

Susan Russo Anderson is a writer, a mother, a grandmother, a widow, a member of Sisters In Crime, a graduate of Marquette University, and a life member of The Art Students League of New York. She has taught language arts and creative writing, worked for a publisher, an airline, an opera company. Like Faulkner’s Dilsey, she’s seen the best and the worst, the first and the last. Through it all, and to understand it somewhat, she writes. [Read More …]